Savior
by Jinchuuriki-San
Summary: Found dying on the streets, about to be slain by the villagers, Naruto Uzumaki is taken in by someone he did not expect and those who done so protect him, teach him and help him find his dreams, a dream to protect those who done it to him. More inside. Rated T but M is possible due to events. Naruto x Ino
1. Chapter 1

**Hello and welcome to a new story by me, Jinchuuriki-san, proud owner of the Demon Reborn series and many Naruto OC's. Today I have a new story which has been floating around for some time in my head and I finally got around to doing the first chapter which, like all first chapters, is a tough thing to do. **

**This WILL contain OC's, some OOC for the characters, FemKyuubi, Council Bashing, Kiba bashing and possible Sakura bashing.**

**Enough of my rambling intro, I will now introduce you to Chapter One of Saviour**

**...**

**Chapter One – The Boy **

**...**

"***Pant* *Pant* *Groan*"**

"Get back here you!"

"***Pant* *Pant*"**

A shadowed figure leapt from wall to wall, trying its best to hide in any crack and crevice that it could find, eager to escape the hooded pursuers, the bane of his existence. If they found naught but a part of the figures shadow, they would hunt, trap and kill without remorse or second thought. The figure looked up and sighed; the moonlight hidden by the clouds of the storms that were rolling in from the east. 'Another storm?' the figure thought to himself. 'This isn't good. I wanna get away from here... I'm scared...'

"Where did he go?" a voice rang out and the figure's breath hitched in its throat and the heart began to beat with a new found speed. Fear. Fear wracked its way through the figure, its arms becoming stiff and its legs shaking on the ground.

"I can't see the little demon spawn. Split up. The quicker we find him, the quicker we can kill it. We failed four years in a row but this year, we won't!" an authoritative voice rang out in the still night air and the shadowed figure looked around him as he heard a multitude of footsteps running off in different directions. A small sigh of relief left his lips. Bad mistake. There was a bang above him and the fumbling of fingers. The figure collapsed onto the floor and looked up as he saw some of the wood and metal being pulled away and he looked around quickly and in panic to find an exit but to him it was too late. The figure gasped in panic as he saw a face peer through the hole in the woodwork that had been made and the face had a sinister grin and eyes filled with a murderous rage. Something all too familiar.

"Found you at last, demon spawn!" he jeered happily and took out a large knife and slashed the rest of the small hole to create a hole large enough for a small child to get into, just the right size to kill the figure and drag his lifeless body to present to the rest of the village. He stuck his arm through and wildly slashed at the figure now cowering in fear on the floor, tears streaming down its face. "I will make this a long and painful death for you as the answers to the dying wishes of my family are given!" he said in an almost maniacal voice. This guy was unhinged, seriously messed up and it could be seen all over his face.

The blade came close to the figures face and he held up his arms to cover his face, the sharp blade digging into the soft flesh of a young boy. He screamed out in pain as the blood welled out of the wound and this seemed to excite the pursuer more as his face split into an almost inhuman grin. "Hahaha, yes! More...MORE!" he yelled as he swung the blade again and this time caught the chest of the child as his arms were doubled up in pain from the first attack. The boy screamed once more and coughed, blood coming from his mouth as well as his chest and arms.

"Leave me alone! I haven't done anything!" he shouted out, his eight year old voice cracked and dry from all the running he'd done.

"No one is gunna save you now; the Hokage won't come for you. He was the only thing in our way from killing you in the first place and now you are no longer under his protection, we can go and do whatever the fuck we want with you, you little shit!" he shouted as he reached in with his free hand and grabbed the young child from the small hiding place and yanked his body out into the road, not caring in the slightest as the broken wood cut and pierced the young child's body. He threw him onto the floor and leant over him, the large knife pressed firmly against the neck of the small child. "I am so very much going to enjoy this..." he said as he traced the knife along the throat of the child, drawing a small amount of blood. The man snickered and licked the blade of the knife, relishing in the blood he had drawn. "The blood of the one who caused so much pain to my family and killed my wife and child... oh how much I have been waiting for this day!" he jeered happily as he grabbed the ankle of the boy as he tried to scramble away.

"NO! GET OFF ME!" he shouted, hoping his voice would reach out to someone. Surely there must have been someone around here that could hear him, like the night guard of the village.

"HAHA! YES! KEEP SCREAMING!" he shouted as he was about to swing the knife down onto the child's ankles to stop him from getting up and running away. As the knife was about to carve deep into the flesh of the child, he shut his eyes deeply, waiting for the pain to strike. But it never came. He whimpered and opened his eyes slowly, still expecting the pain to come. But what he saw shocked him. The man was stuck! His eyes scanned around in panic, looking for what stopped him. The child looked up and saw the blade was wrapped in a black line. Following the black line down, he saw that it wrapped the man's arm and the rest of his body. A small chuckle left the child's lips as he stared at his trapped pursuer. "What the fuck?! Let me go!" he shouted as two figures came out of the shadows.

"You know, it's lucky my friend and I came here at the right time," a tall, black haired male spoke as he forced the man to stand up and face his captor. "You are unlucky that you ran into two of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio of Shinobi. "Inoichi, take care of the child as I take this man to the Hokage," he ordered as the second male stepped forward and approached the child on the floor. "Then take him to yours, your daughter and my son should be in the care of your wife." The other male nodded as he approached the cowering figure on the floor. He crouched down and held his hand out, watching the boy visibly flinch and he sighed.

"I'm not going to hurt you, trust me. I'm your friend. My name is Inoichi Yamanaka, and he is Shikaku Nara, we're Shinobi of the village. We heard some commotion and we came to check it out. You look like you are in bad shape. Sit still and I'll patch you up and get you to mine where I can get my wife to look at you properly," he said in a kind tone. "What's your name?" he asked and the boys lips moved but nothing came out, or what did come out was completely incoherent. It didn't matter to Inoichi, this boy was infamous in the village and he knew his name. He was trying to get onto the good side of the child to make him trust him. "Silent type huh? Don't worry, I'll get you out of here anyways," he said as the child allowed the man to pick him up. As the man had done so, the child put his hands around the older man's neck and his grip tightened. 'Hm, quite light for an eight year old... just what does this little guy eat?' he thought to himself as he looked behind him and saw Shikaku knock out the crazed man and carry him off into the distance. 'Right about now, Choza should be clearing up the rest of the pursuers. It was lucky we were in the area when I heard screaming,' he thought solemnly to himself before he walked off to his house.

As the man came to his house, the door swung open and a female stepped outside, her hair askew and her face panic stricken. "Inoichi! Where have you been? Ino and Shikamaru told me you heard shouting and you, Shika and Choza ran off to find it and told them to come here. What happened?" she asked hurriedly, Inoichi sighing and as he stepped into the light bathed path at the entrance to the Yamanaka family home, his wife gasped and ran forward. "Who is this child?"

"Found him about to get murdered by some of the village. He was the reason for all the screaming. Choza should be clearing up the rest and right now Shika is with the Hokage. Take him inside to the spare room. Where are Ino and Shikamaru?" he asked and his wife told him they were asleep as Inoichi stepped through the door, his wife taking the now sleeping child away and taking him upstairs to the spare room. Inoichi looked out of the window after shutting the main door and saw lightning streak the skies. 'Whatever his going on, I will protect this child,' he thought to himself as he got the sake and sat down on a chair in the kitchen and sighed, rubbing his temples. As he sat in silence, he thought over what the crazed man was shouting. 'That man was fucked up, completely unhinged. It's been eight years and they still can't let go...'

He was lost in his thoughts that he did not notice his wife come back into the room. She cleared her throat and Inoichi's head whipped up. "You okay dear?" she asked and Inoichi nodded.

"Rough night; that guy was fucked up in the head, and I mean, REALLY messed up. Something was unhinged in there," he said and his wife nodded and sat next to him.

"Trust you to know all that. The child is okay, I have patched him up and now he's sleeping. I will stay with him tonight and make sure he gets plenty of rest. Shikamaru is sharing Ino's room and I don't wanna disturb them until the morning," she told her husband who nodded. "Good. Now I have a question... who is that child?" she asked and Inoichi looked up.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"You mean?"

"Yea, the very one..." his face grew dark as he thought back on the memories of years gone past and he looked up to his wife. "I have a lot of explaining to do right?" he asked and she nodded. Inoichi chuckled gently. "I'll tell you when Shikaku and Choza get back, okay."

His wife nodded and stood up, going into the kitchen to prepare some snacks for their friends and they will discuss the fate of the child before anything else.

'Naruto Uzumaki... what happened to you? You should have been a hero...'

**...**

**And I shall end the first chapter here! This seemed like a brilliant place to stop and this will updated monthly or whenever I can, as will all the rest of my stories. Reason being, in a week or so, I will be going back to college for my final year and I will not have much time to write. **

**I personally, thought this chapter came out really well and much better than my planned version. I also hope you guys enjoyed the bit with the crazed up man and that it was well done. The next chapter will be out either near the end of this month OR start of October, whenever I complete chapter two. **

**This one will be a little different than my usual pairings that I have for Naruto and unlike my Demon Reborn, there will NOT be a harem for Naruto (well, he only has two mates in there but yea). There will also be significant differences to the Demon Reborn as well so those that know and love the series will know what those changes are when they come across them so if anyone thinks this is a rehash of the Demon Reborn series, then they are wrong. **

**This will be T for now but will be subject to change because of language etc and also a couple of dark themes in there like this chapter. But later on during the story (for certain content) I might have have to bump it up to an M. Either T or M rated, I hope you enjoy it either way. **

**Nothing much else to say here really so I hope you enjoyed this first chapter and see you in the second!**

**Ja-ne minna-san!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks so much for all the favourites/follows for this story! I am very pleased of that amount for the first chapter and now I have something to live up to for this story. **

**This chapter is out earlier than I thought because I had a free schedule all day and I decided to do some writing, so I do hope you enjoy it.**

**There is something I want to clarify in this before I start it: The Academy students will be starting at age 10 and finishing at age 16 mainly because to me, sending kids out into the Shinobi world is suicide. There are also many other reasons behind this but I hope you can all stay with me for the duration of this story.**

**I have also made a couple of changes to the events that take place in the Cannon which you will find out soon enough in this chapter.**

**...**

**In the previous chapter, we saw Naruto at the mercy of his captor, seemingly going to kill him and use the body as a trophy that they can present to the village as proof that the 'demon' has been killed. They were apprehended by two of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio and taken to the Yamanaka house where Inoichi (who rescued him) is now waiting on the arrival of his friends whilst his wife had put Naruto to rest in the spare room...**

**...**

**Chapter 2 – The Girl**

Inoichi sat on the chair in the kitchen, apprehensive on the conversation that he knew would be coming up in a matter of minutes as soon as his friends and team mates came through the front door to the main house of the Yamanaka compound. He looked up to the clock and sighed; ten minutes had passed but it had felt like an hour. The minutes crawled by and Inoichi was so tense at what the conversation was going to be about that when there was a knock on the door, he physically jumped, knocking the Sake, bottle and all, to the floor.

"Shit," he mumbled out as he picked up the now cracked bottle and quickly wiped up the alcoholic beverage. As he done so, there was another knock at the door. "Yea, yea, keep your hair on, I'm coming." Inoichi was not in the best of moods, that was his best Sake and instead of drinking it, he was wearing most of it! He grumbled to himself and walked up to the door, yawning as he did so. Stretching, he opened up the door to see who it was. He blinked a couple of times to register his guests and upon doing so, he let them in. "I wasn't expecting to see you here too, Hokage-sama," he bowed and moved out of the way of his guests and shut the door behind him.

The old man bowed and smiled, taking off his hat and resting it on the coat rack. "This is ill news, something has come to my attention thanks to Shikaku and I have come to you to speak about what transpired in my office," he explained as Inoichi nodded and took the free seat next to Chouza and looked across the table to Shikaku and the Third Hokage. The Third Hokage looked around to the three and then nodded. "Inoichi... what do you know of the Kyuubi?"

***Elsewhere***

***Cough* **"Ughh..."

"You're awake then? Good..." a deep and sinister sounding voice echoed through a dimly lit room and a man was seated on a wooden chair in the middle of the room, his body bounded by chains imbued with chakra. He blinked and looked up, his eyes fixating on a stone wall which was smeared with dried blood and god knows what else. Panic started to take the man as he writhed on the chair, the chains rattling and the chair scraping on the floor, the legs held fast through iron holdings. "Stop moving around, nothing you can do here," the same voice came from behind and the man whipped his head around and saw nothing there but the darkness of the room and the flickering flames of torches on the walls. The man once more looked ahead of him and tried to get free of his restraints. "I still don't see why you are trying."

"Who are you? W-Where am I?" the main asked, the tone of fear clearly heard in his voice.

"Who I am is of no concern to you and as to where you are, well I shouldn't really have to tell you where you are because you should know... after what you had done."

"A-after what I done?" The man asked weakly, his voice hoarse and his lips dry. "How long have I been down here?" he asked, expecting someone to say a few days.

"A couple of hours... oh it was so much fun watching you scream as we bought you here..." the voice told him, much more clearer this time. The man felt his eyes going hazy and he blinked to clear his eyes and he could just about make out a shadowed figure in front of him, hiding in the shadows of the circular room. "But enough small talk, let's get down to business." The voice chuckled as the shadowed figure came closer, close enough to see his face. The man in the chair gasped as the man came closer. He knew what he was in for. He had seen this man around the village more than enough times to know who he was.

"M-Morino...Ibiki..."

"Hahaha, so you know me? Good. It makes things much more easier for me anyways; you know who I am, what I do and what I can do to you if you don't talk. But then again, for what you did, you seemed pretty happy to be cutting that kid up. Let's see if you like the same thing done back to you," he said coldly, blowing cigarette smoke into the man's face. He held up his right hand and motioned it as if to say, come here and from behind him, another figure appeared in a puff of smoke, carrying a large briefcase only to give it to the man now known as Morino Ibiki and then disappear again. Ibiki carried the briefcase over to a metal table to the left of the man and set it down. The man gulped when he saw the blood that was on the table.

'Just what does he do down here?' the man wondered and began to shake.

"I'd stop shaking if I were you. It will make it harder for me to do my work," he said, glancing over to the man as he took a rather sharp tool, a scalpel, out of the box and then shut the box with a snap, causing the man to jump, the chains rattling. "Oh you jump with most excellence... this is going to be fun. But first," Ibiki began as he held the scalpel close to the man's neck and traced it along the skin, the man breaking out into a cold sweat. "I don't see why you are like this for; you were doing exactly the same thing to that child and you seemed to fucking LOVE doing it," he said as he pressed the scalpel into the man's skin, drawing a small trickle of blood. "Hahaha... oh I am going to have so much fun getting the answers out of you," he said darkly as he took the scalpel and looked to the man. "Hold onto this will you?" he asked as he skewered the man's left hand with the scalpel; the man screaming out in pain. Ibiki looked back over to the table and opened a book. Taking a pen out of his pocket, he began to write whilst muttering to himself. "Date of interrogation, October 10th, time, 1126 hours, name of Interrogator, Morino Ibiki, Head of Torture and Interrogation in Konohagakure. Victim... hehe, I love how they put victim in here... Victim is Fuki Awakasa, member of the Village Council, Civilian. Age, 35 years. Gender, Male. Spouse and Next of Kin, none. A loner huh? Well it doesn't matter to me anyways, it just means that no one will mind if you go missing..."

"You fuck! You can't do that! We have rights!" the man shouted, pain still coursing through his body.

"Oh shut up. You were bought here by the order of the Hokage and tomorrow he is having a meeting with the rest of the council, village and Shinobi because of what you done. This is for the best of the village. Don't forget, you are in this village under the protection of the Shinobi of the Fire Country, it's up to us what happens to you."

"Wait until the Daimyo hears of this! You won't get away with this!"

"He won't have to know. We are on equal ground with him and it is us that protect him. He will understand that to protect the military force of the village and also the future of this village, any methods are deemed necessary to that cause because he needs this force to protect the county," he said as he closed the book and walked over to the man and ripped the scalpel out of the man's hand, making him scream again. "And you can go and do whatever you want. I am in control here. In fact, the Daimyo was here when you were taken to the Hokage anyway; he knows what you did and I suspect he agreed to this as well so that the future of the village and country may live on. Gotta think big here, right?"

"I don't know what you are talking about!"

"Liar. I know for a fact that you viciously attacked a small child who was defenceless and that was just no child, he was Naruto Uzumaki a-"

"A Demon who deserves to die for what he done to the village eight years ago!"

***SMACK***

"You will NOT mutter those words here. Naruto Uzumaki is a child of this village and part of this villages future. He is not a Demon. If he was, he would have laid waste to you and I could be still in bed, wondering what the next day will bring but instead they bought me a midnight gift. Now tell me, why were you after him?"

"I don't have to tell you anything!" the man shouted, blood dripping from his mouth and he reared his head back and spat in Ibiki's face.

"A fighter huh? Well, we have ways to make you talk down here..." he said as he came closer to the man and placed his hand on his forehead. "Now I will find what I want and with the Hokage's orders, dispatch you without mercy. But one question... do you know what the ultimate weapon is?" he asked and the man shook his head.

"The mind. And oh have I been exploiting yours this evening. Fear is something that is natural to a predator. Fight or flight. Your mind is currently set on flight, trying to get your way in this so you think I might let you free but I am in control here and I am sorry to say, that is not going to work," he said with a sinister smile.

"You monster!" the man shouted in fear as Ibiki closed his eyes and began to concentrate.

"Do you say that to everyone?" Ibiki asked and began to force chakra through his hands into the man's forehead, making the man double up in pain and scream as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, blood coming from the sockets as Ibiki's jutsu done its work on the man.

***Back with Inoichi***

"So what you are saying is that..." Inoichi muttered out, his jaw on the table as he digested what the Hokage had told him. The Hokage nodded and Inoichi reached out for the new bottle of Sake. "Wow... but to think that they will do this to him? He is supposed to be a hero; there was no need for them to keep doing this. I for one feel guilty for ignoring this for the past eight years... If only I had known the truth before."

"The reason this was kept hidden from everyone was so that we can keep the peace. The village are still very resentful for what happened eight years ago and hold a deep hatred for Naruto," the Hokage said and Inoichi shook his head.

"That doesn't mean that they have to do this every year!" he said, his voice starting to rise.

"Inoichi, keep quiet, the children are asleep," came the stern voice of his wife from the side of the kitchen who had came downstairs after checking up on Naruto once more. "I can see why the Hokage kept this quiet for so long. Such as secret is... well, if anyone had known in the village, who knows what will actually happen," she said and Shikaku nodded and looked to Inoichi.

"She's right. This was kept hidden from all of us to protect the village but one thing still gets me... why are you telling us all this now?" he asked the Hokage who took a puff from him pipe and looked around the room.

"Considering the circumstances, Naruto will have to have another place to stay. This is getting out of hand," he said and Chouza nodded.

"But why look over it after all this time?" Inoichi asked and the Hokage sighed and his face grew dark.

"That is a mistake I will have to live with. I was foolish to let Naruto leave my care on his fifth birthday. I even gave him an apartment in a quiet area of the village so he can stay there away from all the villagers who resent him so much. It may be that the reason that I looked over it all the time was that I believed that it would not get out of hand so much. He was under the watch of one of my best ANBU Black Ops but he was on an important mission tonight and I was understaffed with ANBU to take his place. The villagers must have got wind of this and put their plans into action."

"But why not send someone else out on the mission and let your best man look after Naruto tonight?" Inoichi asked, his tone angry at the foolish mistake that the Hokage had caused.

"Because he was vital for this mission; the one I asked to do this was the only man for the job and this mission is of the utmost importance for the protection of the village," he said and Shikaku's eyes widened.

"You mean that the rumours are true?" he asked and the Hokage nodded.

"Sadly, yes."

"Then who was it that you sent on this mission?" he asked and the Hokage looked up to him, his eyes brimming with tears.

"Uchiha Itachi," he said and Inoichi dropped the bottle of Sake.

"Shit, that's the second bottle I have dropped... but really, the rumours were true and you sent him to do the job? That's his family we're talking about here, you can't do that!" he said, standing up. His wife had to step in and push him onto the chair. "Sorry, Hokage-sama, but you should have sent someone else to do the job," he said and the Hokage shook his head.

"I couldn't . He was the best option I had. He has been my spy for months and earlier today, he told me that they will make their move when the village is busy in tonight's festivities as they celebrate the stopping of the Kyuubi and also Naruto's apparent death which they don't know failed. There is a lot going on and I had to weigh all the options."

"Then why not put Kakashi on this task, isn't he one of the best for this mission?" he asked and the Hokage shook his head.

"He is out of the village in Sunagakure, the Chuunin exams are coming up and Suna are the hosts and we have been invited to partake. He, along with Raiko, won't be back for some time."

"I see... you done what you had to do. This is a lot to take in... But wiping out a whole clan?" he asked and the Hokage sighed.

"I have asked him to leave but one alive; his younger brother," he said Inoichi shook his head.

"I can't believe that the rumours were really true... this has been a really long night. I think we have covered everything now," he said and the Hokage nodded.

"Yes, we have covered what I wanted to discuss with you and Shikaku, the man you bought to me has been taken to Ibiki and I am holding a meeting tomorrow morning. I expect you to be there. The same to you, Chouza and Inoichi," he said as he stood up, took his hat off of the coat rack and turned to Inoichi's wife. "Thank you for your hospitality," he said as he departed and left the house, the door shutting with a snap behind him.

The whole kitchen was left in silence and Shikaku yawned, stood up and looked to the clock. "You don't mind looking after Shikamaru tomorrow do you?" he asked Inoichi who smiled and shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. I know he will sleep most of the day anyways, plus my wife here is more than capable of looking after Shikamaru and my daughter at the same time," he informed the black haired man and watched him leave with Chouza.

Once more, the kitchen was left in silence. "You should get to bed dear," his wife said to him as Inoichi yawned. "I will look after Naruto tomorrow and I am sure the Hokage will want to see him as well after the meeting," she said and looked to the clock seeing that it was past midnight. "I will make sure Ino and Shikamaru are out of the house before Naruto wakes up, I don't want to scare them," she chuckled and watched Inoichi go upstairs before promptly following, checking up on Naruto one last time before turning in for the night.

***The Next Morning***

Inoichi had already departed for the meeting and Mai sat on the chair next to Naruto's bed, her daughter and Shikamaru already out, seeing their friend Chouji for the morning and the duration of the meeting. She looked out of the window to see the village in the distance, the belly of the beast bustling with the throngs of civilians that passed through day in and day out. She was glad that the Yamanaka compound was in the quite part of the village; it meant less disturbances and she would rather wait until she opened her store before she dealt with it. The day was Sunday 14th October and the store was shut for the day meaning that she had all day to tend to Naruto, should he wake up. She took a quick check over his wounds to see that they had already healed and she guessed what the answer was and she had a feeling she was right and so, she sat down once more and waited for the blonde to stir which he had done so after a few minutes or so.

Naruto woke up slowly, his head hurting slightly and his stomach feeling empty. He opened his eyes, squinting in the sunlight that came through the small partition in the curtains. 'Where am I? Am I in the hospital again?' he thought to himself as his eyes came more accustomed to the light levels. 'No white ceiling... so this can't be the hospital. All I remember was seeing a man with long blonde hair coming up to me and saying something to someone else before I must have fell asleep... but what else was going on?' he thought as he tried to support himself on his arm, only for a pain to go through his wrist and he yelped slightly and fell back on the bed.

"Woah, take it easy there," came a soft voice from his left and his face whipped to the direction of the sound and his body grew tense. "Don't worry; I'm not here to hurt you. My name is Mai Yamanaka and it was my husband who bought you here and I looked after you for the night," she said and Naruto picked up no malice in her voice and his body relaxed a little.

'You helped me? I still have to be careful. I don't trust anyone but the old man and Iruka-niisan,' he thought to himself and Mai could tell the body was being wary.

'He has good instincts and I can see why he wouldn't trust me. I am a complete stranger and he woke up in an unfamiliar place,' she thought before deciding to speak to the boy once more. "Don't be afraid, you have nothing to worry about. I am a Shinobi, as is my husband who helped you," she said with a warm smile and Naruto's gaze softened a little more.

"You are a Shinobi? That's so cool!" Naruto said happily and then his face grew serious. "Where am I?" he asked and Mai smiled before opening the curtains to their full extent, bathing the room in sunlight.

"You are in the main house of the Yamanaka compound. The Yamanaka are one of the oldest clans in Konoha next to the Hyuuga, the Uchiha, Nara, Inazuka, Akimichi and Aburame clans and I am the wife to the clan head, Inoichi. It is he and my daughter Ino that you have to thank. It was little Ino who heard screaming and my husband came dashing off to help you," she explained and Naruto's face darkened when he thought on the events of the night before. His right hand moved up to his left wrist where the blade had made contact with his skin and also to his chest where he saw that most of his body was bandaged up. He winced as his fingers traced where the wound up and he figured that it would explain the pain from before. "I fixed you up the best I could and your wounds had already healed which I am very surprised with. You have such a high regeneration rate. I won't ask why but I am glad you are better," she said and passed Naruto a drink of water which he took reluctantly, still not completely trusting the woman before him. He half expected her to strike him like everyone else in the village but she had told him she was a Shinobi and unlike the villagers, most of them seemed to not mind Naruto.

"T-Thanks..." he said weakly as he took the drink and downed the whole lot in one go.

"I know you probably don't trust me because you woke up in somewhere so familiar but I am sure you would like to meet my daughter and her friend, right? They are the same age as you and I am sure you can use some company," she said with a smile and poured Naruto another drink. "They will be home soon, so you wait here for a bit and I'll fix you something up to eat. Anything you like in particular?" she asked and Naruto nodded quickly.

"R..Ramen," he muttered out, loud enough for the woman to hear him and she nodded with a smile.

"One Ramen coming right up. Take your time to rest. I washed your clothes and set them on the chair at the end of the room," she said and Naruto looked around, seeing the chair with just his shirt and some orange pants on them. "Unfortunately, your jacket was too ruined and didn't make it." With that, she left the room to prepare Naruto's meal.

Naruto was left in silence and he thought to himself deeply. 'Why did that man go for me last night? Said I was... a demon or something like that. Why did he try to kill me? He blamed me for something I have never done and didn't listen to me when I said to leave me alone. This happens every year and this one was the worst,' he thought as he bought his knees up to his chest and looked out of the window, a tear falling down his face. "Why weren't you there to help me, Jiji?" he muttered and sighed, letting his mind wander to his role model and to one of the only few people that acknowledged him. Thinking about the man always cheered Naruto up and after a few minutes, the smell of Ramen drifted through the house and his stomach began to growl in hunger. 'I guess that these people did help me. Maybe I should get dressed and wait for my food to come to me,' he thought to himself as he got out of the bed and put his washed clothes on, his underwear still being the same as the day before.

***An hour later***

Naruto was now fully dressed and fed and he sat down on the chair in the kitchen of the woman who had looked after him. He was incredibly nervous, glancing around at everything in the room. Mai took notice of this and laughed gently at his antics. "Don't worry about everything. You are in the home of a Shinobi, you are in safe hands too," she said as she walked around the kitchen, doing chores such as cleaning the dishes and also the table. "My daughter and her friend will be back any minute and I am sure they will like you," she said with a smile and Naruto managed a weak smile in return.

To him, this was nice. Someone else to acknowledge him and not shout and him and chase him out for some unknown reason to him plus the house had a nice feel to it, something he had always wanted when he was a kid. Unfortunately, Naruto had no parents and thus, lived on his own. He had been in the care of the Hokage for the first five years of his life and on his fifth birthday, was given his own place. That was okay and all but nothing beat being somewhere like he was now. He sat there for a few more minutes and the main door opened, causing Naruto to jump at the sound. Mai put a reassuring hand on Naruto's shoulder (making the boy jump slightly) and walked into the hall.

"Hello, Ino, how was your day?" she asked and a girls voice sounded from the hall.

"Awesome mommy, I found a really rare flower in the forest! It was nothing I had ever seen before. It was right outside Shikamaru's house. He said it was called a...a.. Ch...Chry..."

"Chrysanthemum?" her mother replied and Ino nodded happily.

"Yea, that was the one!"

"Those sure are a rare flower around these parts. I haven't seen that many in this village this year. About five or six. It is good to know that there is still a couple around that we can display in the shop. Tomorrow, we can go and find it and then see if we can find anymore," Mai said to Ino who nodded and took her shoes off.

"Where is daddy?" she asked and Mai had told her that he, Shikamaru's dad and Chouji's dad were at a big meeting in the village and that he will be home later that afternoon.

"Do meetings really take that long?" she asked and Mai nodded, making Ino frown.

"Now, come on in, there is someone I want you to meet," she said and Naruto heard what she said and he immediately tensed and he began to sweat. He was never good around people at all but for some reason, he recognised the voice of the girl in the hallway, but he couldn't think of where it was from. Before he could carry on thinking, there was a flash of long blonde hair and purple and Naruto jumped and looked up to see Ino standing there with Shikamaru next to her and Mai behind the two of them. There was a silence and Ino looked up to her mother.

"Mommy, who is that?" she asked and Mai smiled and told her that his name was Naruto and he was the one that Inoichi had saved the night before. Ino's face lit up at hearing his name. She recognised it!

"Hey, were you the one that always used to hang out at the swings in the park?" she asked and Naruto looked to Mai who nodded and Naruto looked to Ino and nodded gently. "I KNEW it!" Ino shouted and ran up to Naruto, putting her arms around his neck and Naruto was not sure what to do. He had never been this close in proximity to someone in his life.

"Uh... who are you?" he asked feebly, his mind still wracking around as to who this girl was. Ino let go and looked to Naruto in a sad look.

"You don't remember? I'm Ino Yamanaka, my mom owns the flower shop in the town. I sometimes come to the park with my friends Shikamaru and Chouji... and this is Shikamaru," she said, pulling the black haired boy next to her. The boy looked at Naruto, nodded and then yawned once more. Naruto looked to them and some of the memories started to fall into place.

"I-I guess I need to thank you... your mom told me what happened yesterday and stuff..." he said and Ino smiled and nodded.

"No need to. I love helping people," she said and Naruto managed a small smile. "Are you joining the Shinobi Academy soon?" she asked and Naruto shrugged his shoulders. He always thought that Shinobi were cool, he had met a lot when he was in the care of the Hokage and some he met were really nice to him like Iruka-niisan. "I am, I'm the heir to the Yamanaka clan and I have to live up to it," she said as she crossed her arms proudly and a smile crossed her face. "My friends are going to as well. You should come join us," she said to Naruto and he thought about it.

'Maybe if I get stronger, the village might accept me more...'he thought and he slowly nodded. "I guess I should. I want to get stronger."

"That's awesome, Naruto-kun," she said happily and Naruto's face lit up at the suffix given to him. "What clan are you from? You can easily pass as a Yamanaka," she informed Naruto.

"I-I'm from the Uzumaki clan," he replied and Ino and Shikamaru nodded to him.

"We've heard of those. They used to be really strong but that's all we know. What about your parents, who are they?" she asked and little did she know, she touched on a really sensitive subject with Naruto. The boys breath hitched and his body tensed with his face getting darker. "Oh...oh... I'm sorry..." she said feebly and ran off to her mom, leaving Shikamaru with Naruto.

"I need to introduce myself I guess. I'm Shikamaru, from the Nara clan. Don't mind Ino, she's loud but you get used to it. How about you come and watch some clouds with me, it's really fun," he said and held out his hand. Naruto looked up to him and then to his hand. He took it and Shikamaru pulled him up and led him outside.

Naruto was glad that Shikamaru had spoke when he had done. If he hadn't then Naruto would have probably started to wallow in sadness and misery that he was an orphan. He knew Ino didn't mean to ask about his parents, they have only just met!

Shikamaru led Naruto outside and he lay on the grass in the garden, the flowers giving a nice scent to the area that just seemed to calm Naruto down. He looked to Shikamaru to see that the was looking up to the sky. Following his lead, Naruto lay down next to him and looked up, the smell of the garden and the warm air making him feel sleepy. Naruto could probably guess why Shikamaru enjoyed this so much. It was nice to let your mind wander for a while and forget all your troubles. After minutes of silence, sleep began to catch up to Naruto and he felt himself drift off and so, he closed his eyes and let his body drift off at its own accord.

**...**

**Heck, that was a long chapter. It took a few hours but I am very glad with how it came out over all. I hope I done well with the whole bit of Ino meeting Naruto and also the torture scene is one of my favourites, it enjoyed writing that bit. **

**Have you actually ever done cloud watching? It's actually quite relaxing and it helps me think of plot ideas for writing and also ideas for artwork; you guys should try it some time! **

**Nothing else to say here, so I will see you next chapter where we will find out what went on in the meeting with the Hokage and what Naruto's fate will be. **

**See you in the next chapter! **


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